Selected Important Texts in African Philosophy

Compiled by Bruce Janz

This is a brief list of texts in English you have some chance of getting hold of. I’ve only listed monographs and edited volumes here, no articles. There’s other good stuff out there, but some is very inaccessible. Make sure to also check the Philosopher’s Index for papers, or other indices, depending on the topic you are researching. The Hippias Search Engine may also turn up some things on the WWW.
n.a. Teaching and research in philosophy: Africa. Paris: UNESCO, 1984.

Apostel, Leo. African philosophy: Myth or reality? Belgium: Story-Scientia, 1981.

Appiah, Kwame Anthony. In my father’s house: Africa in the philosophy of culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992.

Asante, Molefi Kete. Kemet, Afrocentricity, and knowledge. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, Inc., 1990.

Diop, Cheikh Anta. The African origin of civilization: Myth or reality. Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 1974.

Eze, Emmanuel, ed. Race and the enlightenment. Oxford: Blackwell, 1996.

_________________. Africana philosophy: An anthology. Oxford: Blackwell, 1996.

_________________. Postcolonial African philosophy: A critical reader. Oxford: Blackwell: 1997.

Fanon, Franz. The wretched of the earth. New York: Grove Press, 1968.

Gordon, Lewis, T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting, Renée T. White, eds. Fanon: A critical reader. Blackwell, 1996.

Gordon, Lewis, ed. Existence in black: An anthology of black existential philosophy. Routledge, 1996.

Graness, Anke & Kai Kresse, eds. Sagacious Reasoning: Henry Odera Oruka in memorium. Peter Lang, 1997.

Griaule, Marcel. Conversations with OgotemmĂȘli: An introduction to Dogon religious ideas. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1965.

Gyekye, Kwame. An essay on African philosophical thought: The Akan conceptual scheme. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.

Hallen, Barry & J. O. Sodipo. Knowledge, belief, and witchcraft: Analytical experiments in African philosophy. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997.

Horton, Robin. Patterns of thought in Africa and the west. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Hountondji, P. African philosophy: Myth and reality. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1983.

Jahn, Janheinz. Muntu: The new African culture. New York: Grove Press, 1961.

Janz, Bruce. Philosophy in an African Place. Lexington Books, 2009.

Lewis, David, ed. W. E. B. Dubois: A reader. New York: Henry Holt, 1995.

Makinde, A. African philosophy, culture, and traditional medicine. Athens, Ohio: Ohio Center for International Studies, 1988.

Masolo, D. A. African philosophy in search of identity. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1994.

Mbiti, J. African religions and philosophy. Heinemann, 1969.

Mosley, Albert. African philosophy: Selected readings. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1995.

Mudimbe, V.Y. The invention of Africa. Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1988.

____________. The idea of Africa. Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1994.

Ngugi wa Thiong’o. Decolonising the mind: The politics of language in African literature. London: James Currey, 1986.

_________________. Moving the centre: The struggle for cultural freedoms. London: James Currey, 1993.

Nkrumah, Kwame. Consciencism: Philosophy and ideology for decolonization. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1970.

Odera Oruka, H. Sage philosophy. Nairobi: African Centre for Technology Studies, 1991.

Okere, Theophilus. African philosophy: A historico-hermeneutic investigation of the conditions of its possibility. Lanham, Mich.: University Press of America, 1983.

Outlaw, Lucius. On race and philosophy. Routledge, 1996.

Rodney, Walter. How Europe underdeveloped Africa. Washington: Howard University Press, 1982.

Sekyi-Otu, Ato. Fanon’s Dialectic of Experience. Harvard University Press, 1996.

Serequeberhan, Tsenay. African philosophy. Paragon House, 1991.

_____________________. The hermeneutics of African philosophy. London: Routledge, 1994.

Shutte, Augustine. Philosophy for Africa. University of Cape Town Press, 1993.

West, Cornel. Keeping faith: Philosophy and race in America. London: Routledge, 1993.

Wiredu, Kwasi. Philosophy and an African culture: The case of the Akan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980.

Wiredu, Kwasi & Kwame Gyekye. Person and community: Ghanaian philosophical studies I. Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, 1992.

Wright, R., ed. African philosophy: An introduction. Lanham, Mich.: University Press of America, 1984.

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